


you live in my dreams (and leave after shaking the beautiful me)

by nanakomatsus



Category: Wanna One (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Historical, Character Death, Immortality, Reincarnation, Soulmates, im sorry for this but beautiful makes me sad everytime, implied 2hyun, jren makes a brief appearance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-23
Updated: 2017-11-23
Packaged: 2019-02-03 22:58:44
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,552
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12757869
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nanakomatsus/pseuds/nanakomatsus
Summary: Seongwoo and Minhyun meet across worlds, across time, across lives but nothing ever changes.





	1. open up the time where only you and i exist

**Author's Note:**

> this is probably one of the heaviest things ive ever written. contains many (too many) historical inaccuracies. research is in the second chapter if anyone's interested. please listen to joe hisaishi's hanabi soundtrack for the full experience.

 

“I’ve told our story a hundred times.

In different places and with changing faces.

We’re warriors, kings, gods and the moon and the sun.

But in every story,

in every life,

the ending never changes.

I always fall for you.”

// s.j

 

* * *

 

 

He doesn’t remember when his time had started.

 

He doesn’t remember anything from before he had started travelling.

 

What Minhyun remembers is their first meeting in a village in a valley tucked between two mountains where the grass was long and green, the sky was clear and blue and wheat fields coloured the horizon yellow, melding together with the sunset everyday.

 

“Where do you come from, young one?” Asks the old woman in the hut at the edge of the village. The man sips the bland barley tea, allowing silence to fill the small wooden space.

 

“I couldn’t tell you,” he says after a while. The woman’s expression softens into something akin to sympathy. She presses him no more.

 

“That’s alright, boy. Drink up now.”

 

He sleeps for a day after that.

 

The next time he awakens, it is night. The smell of jasmine washes over him. There is a low buzz of conversation that can be heard through the bamboo walls. As he stares up at the roof of dried leaves above him, Minhyun can hear fragments of voices coming through the cracks.

 

“The boy… healing-”

 

“-he doesn’t have much time-”

 

“How can we trust-”

 

“It’s our only chance…”

 

A cool mountain breeze blows by. The young traveller closes his eyes and is pulled under once again.

 

What seems to be the whole village is gathered outside the house. The old woman and the village chief guide him inside. At the center of the room, lies a boy with deep chestnut hair and intense eyes, gazing up at the sky helplessly. His skin is pale, his chest is heaving and his body is shaking.

 

It’s the way his jaw is set, the way his eyes are unblinking and focused. Minhyun knows.

 

“There isn’t much I can do. He won’t last the night,” he says in a low voice. The village chief nods solemnly. The traveller takes a step in and makes his way into the wooden building.

 

Slowly reaching into his sachet, he brings out a small pouch of herbs and soaks it in the bowl of warm water beside the boy’s head. The strong scent of mint wafts through the air mixed with other foreign herbs.

 

Minhyun holds the boy’s head up with one arm and carefully tips the liquid into the boy’s lips with the other.

 

His intense gaze slowly turns to meet the traveller’s.

 

Minhyun offers a sad smile.

 

“I’ve found you.”

 

The boy is gone when the clouds clear, when the moon shines white and bright.

 

The traveller is gone when the sun, muted by the morning mist, peaks through the mountains.

 

* * *

 

They are painted white and adorned with jade.

 

The steady beats of the buk and the intense plucking of the gayageum fill the air.

 

Silk and pearls spin around like patterns in a kaleidoscope.

 

Deep voices merge with the music, singing a haunting melody of ancient chants.

 

Then, the air is still. There is no sound except for the dried leaves that rustle against the ground and the laboured breaths of a dozen men.

 

Their eyes meet, brown on brown, as they begin to stand up straight and bow. They pledge their loyalty in unison and the grand feast follows soon after.

 

“Exciting isn’t it?” He says. Minhyun offers a half-hearted smile.

 

“’The Band of the Dragon Flower Tree’,” he muses.

 

“Has a nice ring to it, eh? Father was under this branch too. Can’t believe we’re actually apart of all this now,” the other continues enthusiastically.

 

“It’s in our blood,” Minhyun replies simply. The boy grins mischievously.

 

“It’s in our bones.”

 

They spend a lot of time lying in the fields after classes, face splattered with ink. They share scars and bruises and help each other up in training. They uphold their code of honour as they are taught to, as they had oathed.

 

Everyday, Minhyun watches him, watches the light in his eyes as the tutor commends him on his calligraphy, watches him laugh as one of their comrades slip on a stone but continues to help him up, watches him eat like a pig at every banquet and watches him as they lie in the courtyard, gazing up at the stars together.

 

“You ever thought about travelling? Seeing the world outside the walls?” He asks. Minhyun is silent for a long time before answering.

 

“No. I’m comfortable where I am.”

 

“Really? I’ve always wanted to. Well, I guess we’ll be having quite a bit of that when we’re older.” Minhyun nods before turning his gaze back to the black canvas up above.

 

Many nights later, they find themselves in the same courtyard.

 

An earsplitting shriek pierces through the air.

 

 _You’ve got to run, Masters,_ says the guard.

 

The compound is engulfed in red hot flames. Angry cries ring all out all around them. A moment later, blood spills out from his mouth. Before Minhyun can pull him away, the idiot’s gone on a rampage and he has no choice but to follow along.

 

They slash the intruders down one by one, back-to-back. They are winning. Neither of them know how, but they are.

 

Reinforcements have arrived. The two men crumple to the ground, exhausted. The other looks up at Minhyun, breathing heavily. A smile begins to form upon his lips.

 

They hear the desperate call for his name too late.

 

An arrow whizzes past Minhyun’s head.

 

His vision is coloured red.

 

* * *

 

He’s been searching for a long time now.

 

It’s been too long.

 

There are too many people around in this town. He pushes through the crowd. In the middle of it all stands a single figure with dark hair and tanned skin. It’s not him, Minhyun knows, but there’s a pull he can’t ignore.

 

He extends his arm and grips firmly onto the stranger’s shoulder.

 

A soft, kind smile and friendly gaze meets his.

 

They sit by a river, sharing bread and drinking rice wine.

 

“We’re the same, aren’t we?”

 

The stranger’s name is Jonghyun. He’s come from the South.

 

Minhyun shrugs, taking a sip of the strong spirit.

 

“Have you found him yet?” Jonghyun asks. Minhyun watches the water cascading over the rocks. Birds chirp overhead, the trees sway in the breeze.

 

“I haven’t, for a long time,” he replies a while later.

 

“So you have, before,” he says. There’s a twinge of wistfulness in his voice.

 

“And… you haven’t.”

 

The stranger smiles sadly and shakes his head.

 

“I’m getting closer. I can feel it. It’s just not the right time, yet.”

 

Minhyun nods, understanding but not really.

 

They decide to take shelter for the night together at an inn. Rain pours against the tiled roof. It is warm inside. Jonghyun sleeps with his back to him. Minhyun looks up at the ceiling. His mind begins to wander.

 

He wonders if he would have to keep searching for as long as Jonghyun had been all this time. There was a skip in the cycle, he concludes. There is nothing he can do about that. He just has to wait and continue traveling in the meantime.

 

He closes his eyes blocks everything out; the rain, the warm body pressed against his arm, the creaking of the floorboards above them. He tries to remember; but all that comes is the scent of herbs and red.

 

He blows the last candle out.

 

It is better not to dwell.

 

They decide to travel together after that night.

 

For years, they keep each other company through blizzards, through treacherous hikes, through the raging sea. They watch kingdoms fall and empires rise out of the ashes.

 

Minhyun thinks there was a skip for a reason. He looks at Jonghyun and thinks that maybe, just maybe they were meant to find each other this way.

 

Maybe they were both searching for something they would never find, and that this was the universe telling them to just look somewhere else. He turns his head to his right, somewhere _closer-_

 

But then one night, in a city in the farthest east, where pink is the only colour upon the giant trees, where the people witness the first sun, a silhouette calls out to Jonghyun from behind a shoji screen.

 

Minhyun waits outside, at the bridge, watching the glowing orange lanterns reflect onto the calm water. Droplets soon begin to create messy ripples on the surface.

 

The sky begins to melt.

 

It is pouring.

 

In the distance, Minhyun watches as the light in the window dims and a lone figure steps out to the balcony, calling him over with the wave of a slender arm.

 

“He’s fallen asleep. It would be a shame to wake him,” says the person, leaning over the wooden railings, raising his voice over the loud rain.

 

“Don’t. Tell him I said goobye,” the traveler replies. The person smiles sadly at him through blood-red lips.

 

“He said thank you and he wanted me to tell you that he loves you,” he says. Minhyun nods in understanding.

 

“But he loves you too,” he replies. The beautiful man with the painted face and ornamental robes ducks his head shyly.

 

“I’ll take care of him. And I hope you find who you’re looking for, traveler.”

 

The rain isn’t so cold anymore.

 

* * *

 

He keeps his head down and allows the blazing heat to simmer against his skin.

 

A bead of sweat travels down the side of his face, down his neck, mixing with the soot and drips onto the metal with a sizzle.

 

He reminds himself that he isn’t the only one suffering here.

 

All around him are gaunt, expressionless faces covered in black, layers of dry skin peeling, mouths parched from hours of unquenched thirst.

 

A violent bellow echoes throughout the warehouse. Something about ‘new arrivals’. Minhyun keeps his head down and continues hammering the dull copper.

 

His fingers are worn. The scabs from the day before have long since peeled and reopened.

 

It is better not to think about anything.

 

This is nothing compared to all the years he’d endured before. Minhyun grits his teeth and brings his mallet down with a louder, duller thud.

 

But still, the bleeding doesn’t stop.

 

The sky is full of buzzing bees in the next few days. There are many of them flying around outside, high in the clouds. The ground vibrates slightly but it’s more like the hum of an added machine in the warehouse.

 

Everyday, when they retire to their sheds after a full day’s work, the bees continue to buzz. All of them are too tired to be worried about when they will strike. When it comes, it comes. There will be nothing anyone of them can do when it does.

 

Then one day, when the newly-drafted are lined up outside with their shackles noisily scraping against each other, it stops.

 

They begin filing in, one by one when the first wave of panic hits them. Outside, the villagers are running for their lives. Children are crying.

 

They continue on, one after another. But now, their eyes are wide with fear, their shackles making much more noise as they shuffle after each other a little faster.

 

Minhyun looks up through half-lidded eyes and he meets another pair of hazel staring at him from the entrance, mouth slightly agape.

 

The second wave does not come.

 

Instead, there is only silence as the earth trembles beneath them.

 

_I’ve found you-_

 

White light engulfs them.

 

* * *

 

The supernova burns.

 

He’s just witnessed the birth of a star.

 

The ringing in his ears won’t stop.

 

The spots in his eyes won’t fade.

 

The world is spinning, spinning faster and faster.

 

_Is this how the world was created?_

 

He thinks so (he doubts so).

 

There is blood on the ground, on his hands, he smells it on himself. He’s drenched in metallic crimson.

 

There are people screaming out for help.

 

He scrambles around, trying to grip something, anything, anyone. It’s too dark. _Where’s the glowing star?_

 

He feels a squeeze on his hand. It is firm. Someone is calling his name.

 

“Hwang! Get up right now! We’ve got to get off!”

 

His legs don’t work anymore. He feels himself being dragged across the ground. He hears the fire behind him and more voices are calling out to him.

 

The ground is cold where they lay.

 

“They killed us,” Minhyun mutters. The man beside him nods.

 

“Yeah.”

 

The screaming continues in the distance. They look up to the pitch-black heavens.

 

“We can’t do anything.”

 

“Yeah.”

 

“I saw the stars.”

 

There is a pause as the man considers this.

 

“Me too,” he says then stops. It is a long time later when he speaks again.

 

“I can hear them.”

 

The ground is moving ever so slightly. A few miles away, the march into soul city has begun.

 

“Me too,” Minhyun replies in a beat.

 

Up above, the sky glows purple. Dawn has come for them.

 

* * *

 

This again.

 

He thumbs the small metal rectangle absently, tracing the ridges of his name as he sways his hammock with one leg on the damp ground.

 

Sunlight filters through the thick tropical canopy in pieces, like a jigsaw puzzle.

 

Minhyun takes a sip from his canteen. Not a drop of water.

 

The stream isn’t too far away.

 

How many weeks has it been, he thinks as he squats by the running water. Four? There was still no news from base. They should be able to head back in a few days. If nothing happens.

 

Suddenly, there is a rustling in the green behind him. He grips his rifle a little tighter. Then comes a familiar voice, muttering indistinctly. Something about mosquitoes.

 

“Oh, Hwang. It’s just you,“ the newcomer says, mildly surprised. Minhyun rolls his eyes and focuses back on getting his canteen filled. He’s screwing the lid on when the other male lowers himself beside him.

 

“’Been literally three weeks now. Haven’t heard you talk ‘cept for that one time you punched my guts out, “ he says playfully, leaning forward to fill his own supplies.

 

“Four,“ Minhyun mutters. His comrade raises an eyebrow.

 

“What’s that?“

 

“It’s been four weeks,“ he repeats evenly, eyes on the ground. The other male raises an eyebrow, a lopsided smile tugging at his lips.

 

“You gotta look someone in the eye when you talk to ‘em, Lieutenant.“

 

The jungle is silent except for the fluttering of bird wings between the giant trees looming above them.

 

Finger on the trigger. One eye open. Forward.

 

Dead leaves crunch under their mud-covered boots.

 

A single shot shatters the near-silence.

 

 _They know! From the South!_ comes a strangled cry.

 

All hell breaks loose.

 

A chorus of battle cries escape their mouths as they begin charging in the opposite direction, volleys of bullets ripping through the air. But something feels off.

 

They’d anticipated far more than this. Soon, it is quiet again.

 

Minhyun’s eyes dart around. This is wrong. A few meters away from him, the man with the mischievous eyes (now clouded with panic) signals to him frantically.

 

_Wrong intel. There can’t be this little._

 

He nods.

 

And there it is. A primitive war cry tears through the silence. Except it echoes all around and soon, there are a dozen other similar noises coming from all around them.

 

They look around, wide eyed. They’re trapped. Completely, utterly, trapped. Then it happens.

 

The first man with the first bullet of the new attack.

 

Minhyun has no time to register anything when suddenly, a large body comes bounding out in front of him, arms cast out protectively.

 

“No-” _(not again)_

 

He watches the body fall to its knees before slumping forward, blood gushing out from its neck.

 

It is the last thing he sees before a sharp pain strikes the side of his head and the world goes black.

 

* * *

 

 

It is summer.

 

The neighbourhood is quiet tonight, as it usually is.

 

The taxi man accepts the money with a grunt and speeds off without a second thought.

 

 _This should be the address,_ he thinks and gathers his luggage before heading down the winding street with only a scribble of notes and the yellow glow to guide him.

 

He’s probably lost, he thinks after turning into a lane that seems to be taking him further away from his destination. Just then, a muffled static makes itself known to him.

 

He should probably ask directions.

 

So he heads towards the noise, down more shallow steps and past more houses that aren’t the one he is searching for. It is on a flight of cobblestone, hidden by a flower bed of red and pink, where he sees a shadow sitting in the dark, pressing a radio to its ear, adjusting the knob.

 

“Excuse me,” he greets the shadow. It lets out a stifled yelp of surprise, quickly shoving the electronic box behind itself. Minhyun pretends not to notice its panic.

 

“I’m looking for this add-”

 

“You’re not going to arrest me, are you?” A young man’s voice comes out rushed and high-strung. Minhyun sighs.

 

“You’d already be shot if I was,” he says calmly before holding the note out. The person clears his throat and stands to accept the paper.

 

“Backtrack to the maple tree with a lamppost under it and take the left. It’s one of the houses to your right,” he says almost immediately. Minhyun nods and mutters a thanks. Before he turns the corner, he pauses.

 

“If I were you, I wouldn’t be sitting with that thing out in the open. Like I said, you’d be shot if I were someone who was looking for it.” And he goes on his way.

 

The man’s got a scar on his lip and a purple bruise on his cheek the first time they officially meet. He’s watering the flower bed when Minhyun walks by on the path that winds above his roses.

 

“Hey, Mister!” He calls out, a mischievous grin spreading across his battered face. The taller man looks around, confused before leaning over railing and spotting the source of the voice holding up a watering can.

 

“I reckon you’ve found the place you were looking for last night?”

 

Minhyun nods expressionlessly.

 

“Got in a fight?” He asks flatly. Radio Boy smirks.

 

“Of sorts.”

 

Seongwoo tells him a lot about freedom.

 

(Minhyun hasn’t heard that name in years)

 

He vents his frustrations and expresses his ambitions. He wants to fight for the people. He wants to be a part of the change.

 

Minhyun’s seen too much to choose a side in any fight anymore. He watches. But he can’t tell Seongwoo that. So he just nods and listens.

 

And they listen. To that chunky piece of silver metal, with audio like static, barely making any of the words out.

 

_**-the Project aims to prepare students for a better, brighter future. Students will be exposed to various new techniques in education-** _

 

“They’ll be coming for us any time now,” Seongwoo says one day, picking at the loose vines. Minhyun hums.

 

“They got Jonghyun and a few others. I’m probably next.”

 

(Minhyun’s heart can’t help but stop for a moment at the mention of a familiar name. He doesn’t begin to hope.)

 

Golden leaves are falling onto the wet ground when a paper crane arrives at his front door one late autumn day.

 

_Meet me when the lights go out._

 

He walks through the black void with just a single torchlight in hand, casting it low to avoid being seen. The howling of sirens pierce through the midnight quiet and from the corner of his eyes, Minhyun can see a faint red glow cast in the sky.

 

Shards of glass and ceramic litter the damp tar. Ripped pieces of paper flutter in the wind. The window sill is smashed and the back door is hanging off its hinges, revealing a destroyed kitchen.

 

Rose petals flurry about.

 

Minhyun takes a seat by the ruined flower bed.

 

The first snow of the year begins to fall.

 

* * *

 

They’d seemed to have lost them. For now.

 

They continue trudging through the knee-deep white. The rushing water can be heard just up ahead. They are so close.

 

Both of them hadn’t eaten for a day now and their vision is becoming hazier. They’re running on nothing but adrenaline and _we have to get out, we have to escape._

 

Minhyun tries steadying his breath. He slows down for a moment, just enough to watch the vapour come out of his own mouth, but his companion nudges him forward.

 

It’s a stupid plan. It’s not even a plan. They’re going to get shot at any moment now. The trees definitely won’t cover them. There isn’t anything to hide behind. The naked wood seems to glower down at them, some sneering.

 

A dog barks in the distance.

 

They run.

 

The snarls of the animal starts to get closer, along with the shouts of several guards.

 

They’re not going to make it, Minhyun knows.

 

The man beside him suddenly comes to a stop. The barking behind them doesn’t.

 

Their breathing is laboured. They look at each other and hold their gazes for a few long moments. The guards are getting closer. They’ve been spotted.

 

Seongwoo gulps and shakes his head. Minhyun doesn’t want to believe it. He begins to scream.

 

“Don’t-” _(Don’t fucking do this to me.)_

 

The shorter man is then storming forward and barreling into him, ultimately pushing him off the edge of the hill.

 

Time seems to slow down as Minhyun falls.

 

He watches the moment the dogs pounce on Seongwoo. Watches the bullets that follow. Watches the pool of blood dye the white canvas ground crimson.

 

The cold dark greets him like an old friend.

 

* * *

 

The speed at which cherry blossoms fall, they say, is five centimeters per second.

 

 _A human falls much faster,_ Seongwoo thinks in the back of his mind.

 

Of course, there are many factors that come with it; the weight of a person, the height from which the person is falling, the location of the person on this blue ball called Earth and the memories that come flooding back just as their axis tilts and the world becomes a blurry mess.

 

He is falling slowly.

 

Naturally, the only memory that flashes across his mind is one of a fine spring day, where cherry blossoms float downwards, at more or less five centimeters per second.

 

Campus is nice when they haven’t been running for an hour at six in the morning while a man on a bicycle shouts into a loudspeaker beside them. It’s nice to just walk around.

 

And it just so happens to be one of those days where he is just walking around, hands in his coat, not a care in the world. At least they have a day off.

 

He decides to take a short hike up to the hill. The one with that supposedly ancient cherry blossom tree that blooms white, its petals reaching even the furthest corners of the compound. There’s even a small bench there, overlooking town.

 

There’s someone else there today, much to Seongwoo’s surprise (and slight dismay). A lone figure sits staring out at the scenery spread beneath.

 

He clears his throat. “That’s my spot.”

 

The stranger turns around, hazel eyes widening a fraction in- shock? Recognition?

 

Then a soft smile curves into the stranger’s lips as snow-white petals entangle with billowing brown hair and Seongwoo feels like he’s met this person before, like they were _meant_ to meet-

 

All this in the two seconds he’s falling.

 

As the memory ends, he spreads his fingers apart, catching a ray of light in his hands.

 

And he falls into oblivion.

 


	2. how these words came to be

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> just a little index for the events that took place and the timeline of the story

**Before 57 BC -**  there existed about 78 tribal states in the southern region of Korean peninsula and relatively big states like Okjeo, Buyeo, and Dongye in its northern part and Manchuria.

 

 **Silla Dynasty (57 BC – 935 AD)** - Silla was a kingdom located in southern and central parts of the Korean Peninsula. It was one of the [Three Kingdoms of Korea](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Kingdoms_of_Korea), together with Baekje and Goguryeo. Silla was also one of the world's longest sustained dynasties. The  _[hwarang](https://www.ancient.eu/Hwarang/)_  was a state-sponsored organisation for the education of elite young males in this period. They were selected from the true bone class of the Silla kingdom's rigid social hierarchy, the [Bone Rank System](https://www.ancient.eu/Bone_Rank_System/).

 

 **Blank Period** \- Between the time after the Three Kingdoms leading right up to before World War II. Minhyun and Jonghyun have traveled to Japan by this time and meet Ren who is a [male geisha](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taikomochi). 

 

 **World War II (1939 - 1945)** - Many Koreans were [drafted for work](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korea_under_Japanese_rule#Atomic_bomb_casualties) at military industrial factories in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. According to the secretary-general of a group named Peace Project Network, there were a total of 70,000 Korean victims in both cities. 

 

 **Korean War**   **(1950 - 1953)** - On [28 June](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Battle_of_Seoul), at 2 am, the South Korean Army blew up the highway Hangang Bridge across the Han River in an attempt to stop the North Korean army. The bridge was detonated while 4,000 refugees were crossing it and hundreds were killed.Destroying the bridge also trapped many South Korean military units north of the Han River. In spite of such desperate measures, Seoul fell that same day. 

 

 **Vietnam War (1955- 1975) -** On the anti-communist side, South Korea had the second-largest contingent of [foreign troops](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam_War#South_Korea) in South Vietnam after the United States. The first South Korean troops began arriving in 1964 and large combat formations began arriving a year later. Approximately 320,000 South Korean soldiers were sent to Vietnam, each serving a one-year tour of duty. All troops were withdrawn by 1973. About 5,099 South Koreans were killed and 10,962 wounded during the war.

 

 **Gwangju uprising (1980) -** Gwangju citizens took up arms (by robbing local armories and police stations) when local [Chonnam University students](http://antikpopfangirl.blogspot.my/2014/11/a-lesson-in-korean-history-iu-and.html) – who were demonstrating against the Chun Doo-hwan government – were fired upon, killed, and beaten in an unprecedented attack by government troops. During the [School Greening Project](http://www.dramabeans.com/2014/10/dramabeans-asks-a-korean-what-is-seo-taijis-sogyeokdong/), college students who were involved in the democratization movement were forcibly drafted, i.e. randomly arrested and sent to military bases. There, the students were beaten and tortured until they agreed to serve as the government’s spies within the democratization movement. It is believed that approximately 1,100 students were forcibly drafted during the School Greening Project; six were killed in the process. Based on Seo Taiji's [Sogyeokdong](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHu39FEFIks) music video.

 

 **North Korean Famine (1994 - 1998) -** The [North Korean famine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Korean_famine) which together with the accompanying general economic crisis are known as the Arduous March or The March of Suffering. The famine stemmed from a variety of factors. Economic mismanagement and the loss of Soviet support caused food production and imports to decline rapidly. A series of floods and droughts exacerbated the crisis. The North Korean government and its centrally planned system proved too inflexible to effectively curtail the disaster. Estimates of the death toll vary widely. Out of a total population of approximately 22 million, somewhere between 240,000 and 3,500,000 North Koreans died from starvation or hunger-related illnesses.

 

 **2017 -** Story crosses over with Wanna One's [Beautiful](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4_tHTmniw4) music video. Also loosely based on the Japanese animated movie '5 Centimeters Per Second'.

 

**Author's Note:**

> titles are from seventeen's lilili yabbay and special thanks to:  
> -my intense love for stories of reincarnation and slightly unhappy endings)  
> -the attack on titan soundtrack (truly helped me with this ngl)  
> -every sad iu song  
> -tumblr soulmate au prompts


End file.
